Phonics is certainly the best way to learn to spell, but I am not sure it is the best way to learn reading. By teaching us to read at sight, one nun had over 120 children in my first grade class reading by the end of the year -- well, that and her fearsome hicory yardstick. I've always been a good reader, and found myself far ahead of neghborhood friends who learned phonetics in public school. Throughout my school years, reading and comprhension were my strongest assets, and I've earned a good living since being able to pick apart the rather dense prose of the Bankruptcy and the Tax Codes. I must admit, however, spelling is a different matter. In this area my skills are not so much, and I blame lack of phonetics for that.
Oddly, when I learned Spanish as an adult, first as a small child might from imersion, and later in an academic setting, I was taught Phonics in Espanol. I noticed the same trade off, slower reading development, but a stronger grasp of spelling.
When a person can sound out an unfamiliar word with the tools phonics provides, he doesn’t have to try to guess how to pronounce it nor guess the meaning of the word by context.
From my experience, not having been taught phonics myself in school, and having my kids learn it from homeschooling, and as a result learning it myself, its benefits FAAARRRR outweigh any perceived drawbacks.
While the speed of learning to read may be (may)initial be a bit faster with the sight reading method, after a certain point, it will even out and the other benefits of the phonics teaching will kick in.
Likely a nun with a hickory yardstick was more incentive to learn to read than the teaching method. It would be interesting to compare results with that motivator removed from the equation.
Yes, you were one of the lucky ones. Studies show one-third of first grade students can memorize enough sight words to learn to read fairly well. However, the bottom third is handicapped for life. Some sort of reading Bell curve.
Comparative studies show phonics produces better readers in the long run, and yes, they can spell.
One study at Yale using MRI brain imaging techniques revealed that learning to sound out words results in more flow of blood to the brain. Readers who lacked the ability to sound out words had less blood flow to the language centers and in some cases, not much activity at all.
I saw one study comparing Open Court (phonics) with a well-known sight reading program which showed an increase in IQ of 5 - 10% for the kids that were taught phonics.
My spelling ability is very weak, and I learned to read using phonics. While you blame sight reading for your poor spelling skills, I blame phonics.
How about that! :-)
Thank goodness for spell check! Life has been much easier since this invention.